The Modern Pop Sound
The Modern Pop Sound is an exploration of how popular music evolves-and of the musicians, songwriters, and producers willing to push it somewhere new.
Drawing on the enduring influence of Brian Wilson and Tom Petty, alongside the contemporary work of Jack Antonoff and Luke Bryan, Benjamin Liles examines a central idea: pop music moves forward when working musicians treat the studio as a canvas and the stage as a sanctuary-combining experimentation with accessibility, crossing genre boundaries, and never losing sight of the song itself.
From Wilson's revolutionary approach to recording and Petty's commitment to direct, memorable songwriting, to Antonoff's modern role as songwriter, musician, collaborator, and producer and Bryan's merging of country tradition with arena-sized popular appeal, The Modern Pop Sound traces the creative principles connecting generations of music makers.
Along the way, Liles broadens the conversation to include artists and writers such as Ed Sheeran, Michael Jackson, Dolly Parton, the Beatles, the Eagles, Amy Allen, Edgar Barrera, EJAE, and others whose work demonstrates how influences travel between genres, cultures, technologies, and generations.
But this is not only a book about the people who shaped popular music in the past.
It is written for the songwriter, producer, musician, or creator who may help shape what comes next.
Through discussions of melody, hooks, vocal identity, collaboration, production, live performance, artificial intelligence, creative risk, and the increasingly global nature of modern music, The Modern Pop Sound encourages creators to learn from their influences without becoming copies of them-to understand the rules, develop their ears, embrace new tools, and have the courage to make the sound nobody has heard yet.
Because the future of pop will not come from repeating what already worked.
It will come from someone asking:
What else could this become?
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